[BUG] prettier not installed correctly

[kewbish]

What exactly happened?

Our team is using this prettier action to format code on push to main. The action was working as of ~8h ago, but as of ~5h ago fails to install the prettier command correctly. No changes to our GitHub workflow were made and we've tried rerunning the workflow several times with the same result. We get:

Installing prettier...
Checking plugin: prettier-plugin-go-template
Prettifying files...
Files:
/home/runner/work/_actions/creyD/prettier_action/v4.2/entrypoint.sh: line 74: prettier: command not found

on action run.

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Go to Actions tab on a GitHub repository
2. Manually initiate an action using this action
3. Scroll down to job run (an example here)
4. See error

What should've happened?
The Action should have correctly installed prettier.

How did it look?
Full stack trace:

Run creyD/[email protected]
  with:
    prettier_options: --write **/*.+(js|html|css|json|md|yaml|yml)
    prettier_plugins: prettier-plugin-go-template
    github_token: ***
    only_changed: true
    commit_message: Prettified Code!
    same_commit: false
    file_pattern: *
    dry: false
    prettier_version: false
    working_directory: false
Run PATH=$(cd $GITHUB_ACTION_PATH; npm bin):$PATH /home/runner/work/_actions/creyD/prettier_action/v4.[2](https://github.com/ubccsss/ubccsss.org/actions/runs/4206994917/jobs/7305175027#step:3:2)/entrypoint.sh
  PATH=$(cd $GITHUB_ACTION_PATH; npm bin):$PATH /home/runner/work/_actions/creyD/prettier_action/v[4](https://github.com/ubccsss/ubccsss.org/actions/runs/4206994917/jobs/7305175027#step:3:4).2/entrypoint.sh
  shell: /usr/bin/bash --noprofile --norc -e -o pipefail {0}
  env:
    INPUT_COMMIT_MESSAGE: Prettified Code!
    INPUT_COMMIT_DESCRIPTION: 
    INPUT_SAME_COMMIT: false
    INPUT_COMMIT_OPTIONS: 
    INPUT_FILE_PATTERN: *
    INPUT_PRETTIER_OPTIONS: --write **/*.+(js|html|css|json|md|yaml|yml)
    INPUT_DRY: false
    INPUT_PRETTIER_VERSION: false
    INPUT_ONLY_CHANGED: true
    INPUT_PRETTIER_PLUGINS: prettier-plugin-go-template
    INPUT_WORKING_DIRECTORY: false
    INPUT_GITHUB_TOKEN: ***
Installing prettier...
Checking plugin: prettier-plugin-go-template
Prettifying files...
Files:
/home/runner/work/_actions/creyD/prettier_action/v4.2/entrypoint.sh: line [7](https://github.com/ubccsss/ubccsss.org/actions/runs/4206994917/jobs/7305175027#step:3:7)4: prettier: command not found
Problem running prettier with --write **/*.+(js|html|css|json|md|yaml|yml)
Error: Process completed with exit code 1.

Where did you encounter the problem?

• Repo: ubccsss/ubccsss.org
• Version v4.2

[shawnyu5]

Same here, workflows using this actions randomly started failing recently with the same error /home/runner/work/_actions/creyD/prettier_action/v4.2/entrypoint.sh: line 74: prettier: command not found

[infotexture]

Same here: https://github.com/dita-ot/docs/actions/runs/4211604746/jobs/7310061348

[WilliamsCJ]

Version 3.3 appears to be the latest version that is not affected.

[Piet2001]

Here the same issue in multile repo's.

[semseysandor]

A workaround for this bug: pin npm to version 8 in your job (if it's possible)

- name: Install npm v8
  run: npm i -g npm@8

- name: Check code-style
  uses: creyD/[email protected]
  with:
    dry: true
    prettier_options: --check **/*.{md,yml}

[semseysandor]

I've done some debugging:

• it seems prettier is not found because $PATH is off:

  echo PATH=$PATH
  PATH=Unknown command: "bin"
  
  To see a list of supported npm commands, run:
    npm help:/home/runner/.local/bin:/opt/pipx_bin:/home/runner/.cargo/bin:/home/runner/.config/composer/vendor/bin:/usr/local/.ghcup/bin:/home/runner/.dotnet/tools:/snap/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/snap/bin
  

• running npm help confirms npm bin is not available

  npm <command>
  
  Usage:
  
  npm install        install all the dependencies in your project
  npm install <foo>  add the <foo> dependency to your project
  npm test           run this project's tests
  npm run <foo>      run the script named <foo>
  npm <command> -h   quick help on <command>
  npm -l             display usage info for all commands
  npm help <term>    search for help on <term>
  npm help npm       more involved overview
  
  All commands:
  
      access, adduser, audit, bugs, cache, ci, completion,
      config, dedupe, deprecate, diff, dist-tag, docs, doctor,
      edit, exec, explain, explore, find-dupes, fund, get, help,
      hook, init, install, install-ci-test, install-test, link,
      ll, login, logout, ls, org, outdated, owner, pack, ping,
      pkg, prefix, profile, prune, publish, query, rebuild, repo,
      restart, root, run-script, search, set, shrinkwrap, star,
      stars, start, stop, team, test, token, uninstall, unpublish,
      unstar, update, version, view, whoami
  
  Specify configs in the ini-formatted file:
      /home/runner/.npmrc
  or on the command line via: npm <command> --key=value
  
  More configuration info: npm help config
  Configuration fields: npm help 7 config
  
  [email protected] /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm
  

• check npm version

  npm version
  9.3.1
  

• In npm v9 npm bin is removed: https://github.blog/changelog/2022-10-24-npm-v9-0-0-released/#%E2%9A%A0%EF%B8%8F-notable-breaking-changes
• $PATH is set by npm bin in

  prettier_action/action.yml

  Line 64 in dc62bca

  PATH=$(cd $GITHUB_ACTION_PATH; npm bin):$PATH

Conclusion

It seems currently this action won't work with npm v9.
So I've executed prettier with npm exec prettier and it worked, step succeeded. I'm not sure if that's the way. In that case though npm install might be unneeded as according to the docs npm exec can fetch packages also.
But I'm not too much into Node and npm so I leave this decision for you 😃

[creyD]

Hi all! Thanks for the quick and efficient coordination. As I can see you already worked out a workaround. I can also add it to the readme to support struggling users. Would it be a good idea to pin the npm version in the action? Or what ways forward should we think of?

[creyD]

Alright, there is now v4.3 which has the bugfix and a note for the workaround in the readme. Thanks for everyone who hel'ped and supported here! All repos using the action with the @master or just plain prettier_action without a version specified don't need to change anything. Everyone else who pinned an earlier version should either change their workflow to the new version or add the workaround.

[Viicos]

Would it be a good idea to pin the npm version in the action? Or what ways forward should we think of?

I think it's a good practice to pin versions when possible, so that the behavior will always be the same. Then when something gets an update, it can be manually updated on the action, making sure that everything's working as excepted